The Long Retreat of Liberalism

For, from Greece to Ireland to Portugal to Italy, from California to Wisconsin to New Jersey to New York, the crisis of the West is a crisis of liberalism.
Deficits and debts that threaten to wipe out bondholders and banks, destroy currencies, bring down governments and bankrupt nations are everywhere forcing reductions in government payrolls and rollbacks in government programs.
Across the West, the public sector is under siege.
And parties of the left, be they liberal, socialist or Marxist, depend on the public sector increasing its employees, increasing its beneficiaries, increasing its share of the national wealth.
That is what they do. That is how they grow. And that is how they reach and retain power.
Bottom line. Parties of the left are on this earth to grow the government. But the West has entered a period where its economic survival and the prevention of financial collapse mandate constant and deep cuts in the size and sweep of government.
For the left, this is going to be a long decade.

Denial of what? Wage demands, workplace safety demands, environmentalism, human rights, etc., are growing faster in the developing world than they ever did here. The author thinks government expenditures over revenue, and public sector headcount (in a recession no less) is all there is to liberalism/conservatism??

Denial that government spending is out of control and they've run out of other people's money. It's good that you don't trade. You couldn't recognize a trend if it slapped you in the face.

Quote from Ricter:

Denial of what? Wage demands, workplace safety demands, environmentalism, human rights, etc., are growing faster in the developing world than they ever did here. The author thinks government expenditures over revenue, and public sector headcount (in a recession no less) is all there is to liberalism/conservatism??